David Cronenberg takes out his guts on the Croisette
Canadian director David Cronenberg presented his latest film, “Crimes of the Future”, in Cannes on Tuesday, faithful to his obsession for the body and its viscera.
David Cronenberg (right), with Viggo Mortensen and Léa Seydoux, at the Cannes Film Festival, Monday May 23, 2022.
AFP
Deep or smoky? The public will decide, but David Cronenberg lived up to his reputation as the pope of gore with the presentation at Cannes of “Crimes of the Future”, where he pushes his obsession for the body and its viscera further than ever.
The film, set in an indeterminate “post-disaster” future, a world in ruins where pain has been abolished, features the director’s favorite actor, Viggo Mortensen (“A History of Violence”, 2005; “The Promises of shadow”; 2007, “A Dangerous Method”, 2011). This time in the shoes of a very special performer, Saul.
His creations? Tattoos made raw on his internal organs, during surgical operations carried out in public. Watchword: “surgery is the new sex”. The scalpel is wielded by Caprice, played by a wax-faced Léa Seydoux, while a nebulous police force, the Office of the National Organ Registry, represented by Kristen Stewart, monitors them from a distance.
«Body horror»
The subject is sometimes obscure, on the evolution of humanity and the “naturally unnatural”, these “neo-organs” cultivated inside bodies by machines that seem to have come out of the 1980s and its confusing “punchlines” (“zippers have their own sex appeal”).
Above all, the film marks the director’s return to “body horror”, after an eight-year absence. “In this film, I tried to look at what was inside the body,” he summarizes for AFP, for his sixth time in competition.
“My interest is not to shock and my goal is not for people to leave the room, but it can happen”, continues the director of the cults “La Mouche” or “Vidéodrome”, who has matured for more than twenty years. this project. From the opening sequence, sensitive souls will be tested: we see a child crunching in a plastic chair as in a chocolate bar, before being murdered, suffocated under a cushion, by his mother.
“Ahead of the times”
“There are things I wouldn’t like to see, but it’s very specific. I don’t like cruelty, especially cruelty to children (…) I wouldn’t say it shocks me but I don’t like to watch”, nuance the one who has three children and four grandchildren.
The scent of sulfur that surrounds the 79-year-old director is not new: from his debut in competition in 1996, he caused a scandal, dividing the critics but winning a Special Jury Prize, with “Crash”. This film all about sex, violence and car accidents inspired “Titanium”, Palme d’or 2021, by Julia Ducournau.
Another type of accident took place on “Crimes du futur”, with filming abruptly stopped for exhausted budget. Magnetic actor made famous by the “Lord of the Rings”, “Captain Fantastic” or “Green book: on the roads of the south”, Viggo Mortensen, already often filmed naked by David Cronenberg, this time takes out his guts, literally.
“Ahead of its time”
“For some shots, I was very happy not to be in my own skin”, confides the actor to AFP, in particular with reference to the scenes of evisceration, shot in Athens by more than 40 degrees. “Clearly, there are things you can’t do to your body by then doing a second or third take!”
“It’s a well-written and structured film noir story but also a love story, between Léa Seydoux and my character, boundless trust, a very strong physical connection and a story of sacrifice for the physical well-being of the other,” he continued.
“We have a friendship with David and a trust that allows me to let him try unusual things that I wouldn’t necessarily try with others without knowing if they ask for the value of the plan or for the show”, continues -he. For him, David Cronenberg is “ahead of his time” and his films must be seen “four or five times in a row” to be understood.
Published: 23.05.2022, 23:50
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